Ceramic surfaces with new urban, architectural uses are taking our streets and cities by storm

This year, the Spanish makers of ceramic paving and surfaces have pleasantly surprised us with new, interesting ideas and products designed especially for the urban and architectural sectors.

Roca presents Broadway, a robust 15-mm thick ceramic product designed for areas subjected to heavy traffic. It has an anti-slip surface and is equally well suited for indoor or or outdoor spaces.

Owned by the brand Marathon, Keraben launches its very metropolitan and cosmopolitan-looking series Urban. It’s a compact, highly durable material, made of 80 per cent recycled products. It’s available in six sizes and colours and is designed to provide paving for hugely ambitious architectural projects.

Proyecta, meanwhile, is a new ‘full body’ porcelain tile created by the company Rosa Gres. It’s a compact, homogeneous, uniformly thick material particularly well suited to areas of heavy traffic which require a material which is not only super-durable but also has anti-slip qualities. It’s available in five earthy, nature-inspired tones and in three basic sizes.

Meeting the current demand for new materials for urban contexts, another company Vives has brought out its Vives Plus range, which is 15mm thick and highly resistant to the harshest weather conditions. It measures 40cm by 40cm and comprises three lines consisting of different designs: Duomo, Ábside and Calzada.

Another of this year’s most compelling ideas is the vertical garden, a good example being Ceracasa’s LIFEWALL®, created by architect Emilio Llobat Guarino of Maqla Arquitectos. LIFEWALL® is a vertical garden which can be easily fixed to the facades of buildings, and as such is convenient for designers – and benefits the environment. The design comprises 1m sq panels on to which any type of vegetation can be attached.

Afterdark, the first intelligent, photo-luminescent ceramic material, has been developed by the company Tau Advanced. It’s based on a system of fluorescence which shines brightly for two to three minutes but remains luminous for 20 minutes. This type of paving is a new product designed for public spaces – such as walkways in underground stations – and its use proves it makes public places safer.

Then there’s Ceracasa’s City, a collection made of coloured porcelain resembling basalt. Its anti-slip surface makes it ideal for areas with heavy footfall, such as shops and unusual projects.

Life Arq by Natucer is a new architectural material which exploits extruded ceramic for use as 3D architectural elements, facades and walls or partitions. Life Arq can be used for indoor or outdoor surfaces, for facades, dividing walls and walls in general. At the last Cevisama fair, held in February, Life Arq was awarded the 2010 Alfa Silver award, given by Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio (Spanish Association of Ceramics and Glass), for being an innovative product.

Texture, rather than colour, prevails

2010 has very much consolidated the major trend for the return of natural materials and neutral colours. Thanks to technological advances, such as digital printing, ceramics are looking increasingly realistic when it comes to mimicking wood or stone – materials frequently used in architecture.

Meanwhile, Apavisa unveiled its Iridio and Burlington collections – porcelain which recalls the original stone traditionally found in British quarries.

And thanks to a bas-relief which recreates the flatness and smoothness of natural slate using digital technology, Inalco has, with its Pyrene line, recreated the look of black slate very convincingly.

Notable examples of ceramics imitating wood include Ceracasa’s Nature collection in such wood effects as ebony, walnut, olive, oak, beech and birch, Saloni’s Extrem and Inalco’s Ginza line, which comes in a conventional thickness and a slimmer one.

Although neutral tones appear to be the dominant trend in ceramics this year, colour and relief patterns were also evident on some other interesting, newly launched products: take Porcelanosa’s Qatar collection, Dunne’s Infinity and White Dream designs and Pamesa’s vibrantly colourful Mood range.

Mention should also be made of the new designer cerami lines, like the No-stalgia range, created by high-profile US-based designer Karim Rashid for Porcelanatto, and Inalco’s Concrete, one of three designs co-created with the architectural practice Sara de la Mata – part of the new collection Bunch-Inalco.

Slimline ceramics

Thanks to the fact that they are easy to install, manipulate and to their consumption of raw materials and the savings made from transporting them, very thin ceramics, measuring about 4 or 5mm thick, have gone from being a newsworthy novelty to a material regularly used by most companies. Examples of these include Tau Fine by Tau, Skintech by Roca, Xstile by Ceracasa, Nanotech by Apavisa and Slimmker by Inalco.